Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
In 10°S 167°W Carteret again turned westward, looking for the
Solomons that Byron had missed two years before. He sailed right
through the region where they had been located on charts since the
Spanish voyages of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Then,
by a cruel irony, he came, seventeen days and thirteen hundred miles
later, to the island of Santa Cruz, the easternmost of the Solomon
group - and did not recognise it. Quiros had described the island
carefully, and indicated that it possessed a good harbour in Graciosa
Bay (where he had established a settlement) and was well stocked
with animals, fruit and vegetables. But Quiros had also located Santa
Cruz twenty degrees east of its true position, and that explains why
Carteret failed to identify it.
That failure gave birth to a complete brood of further disasters.
The scurvy-weakened crew were desperate for fresh food and water
so Carteret anchored in a bay on the desolate northern coast and
sent out a reconnaissance party to see what benefit the island
offered. To their delight, the men came upon Graciosa Bay and its
more abundant hinterland. They also found a large group of friendly
natives. All was going well until the leader of the party, anxious
to gather a boatload of coconuts, ordered one of the trees to be
cut down. This broke a local taboo and the mood of the islanders
changed. To dissuade them from making an attack, the
Swallow's
master fired a pistol. This had the exact opposite of the desired
effect. In the subsequent affray, seven of the Englishmen were
wounded (four later died of tetanus). After that it was impossible to
re-establish good relations or to gather supplies. The
Swallow's
men
took on fresh water but only by frightening the natives away with
musket salvoes.
Carteret now gave way to depression and inertia. His ship
needed a complete overhaul. Most of his men were sick. He had only
one lieutenant fit enough for duty. There was no prospect of ob-
taining fresh food. He would have to abandon his plans of resum-
